I Long For A World

“The tree on the mountain takes whatever the weather brings. If it has any choice at all, it is in putting down roots as deeply as possible."-Corrie ten Boom

What makes a grandmother put her former life in storage and move half way around the world to a place where human life is cheap and female human life is not believed worth the time to tally it up?

I think it must be in the seeing. Seeing what is but also what may be and seeing it through Divine eyes not just kind eyes. Kindness is a blessing but Salvation is a miracle. Salvation that is saving the seer as well as the seen. Salvation that knows the forgiven have had their hearts enlarged in the limitless way that defies the confines of the stained glass world where most of us worship. Salvation like bread that was made to be broken and shared. Salvation that fills a cup for a lifetime not just for lunch.

There is such a grandmother that John and I support and agree with her that Christ is the game changer in a world of empty cups. I would like to share with you something she wrote at the holidays that moved me. Please hear Jackie's words from India where she works to help women and children discover the One who will walk with them in the storm. Where she helps young trees grow roots that will hold, "whatever the weather brings."

 I long for a world where children do not sleep in the mud, under plastic sheets, rats running through their “houses.”  Where they don’t sleep on concrete slabs, in the open, alone.  A world where people don’t eat what they find lying on the street; I long for a world of enough.

I long for a world where people are not used, abused, treated as objects, outlets for the anger of others, mere commodities for the use of another’s egotistical and insatiable appetite.

I long for a world where children are not slaughtered, where humans dare not murder and kill and fight in ways that even animals would not think of.  Where life is viewed as sacred, something to be preserved, treasured, celebrated.

I long for a world where governments protect their people and look out for the well being of those in their care.  A world where corporations do not annihilate and steal from and cheat indigenous peoples, unempowered peoples, poor peoples in their quest for land and for more and more and more.

All of these things touched my life today.  Yet today, in a world of such suffering, I was blessed to see joy.  The joy of thirty children who sleep by the railway tracks celebrating their first Christmas.  Celebrating with a chili chicken breakfast, with a gift of a warm blanket and new clothes, with songs and dance, with smiles and laughter.

I was blessed to celebrate a second Christmas with a few hundred others, made even more joyful by the memories of their first Christmas.  Celebrated with songs and rhymes and verses and dances and dramas and the Most Important Story of All.

I was blessed to overhear an amazing answer to a question—What does Christmas mean?”  Without hesitation, “happiness.”

I long for a world…

Romans 8:18-23

Jackie Tallent, Calcutta, India
Reaching the street children of South Asia

Donations may be sent to:
Jackie Tallent 
1445 N. Boonville Ave.
Springfield, MO 65802
Donation Acct. #207093

(If you too long for that world, consider investing in it with your prayers and a contribution. Sometimes money can in fact buy "happiness" and often does to the glory of God.-Kathy)